Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29; 1958) is an American musician and entertainer. The seventh child of the Jackson family; he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of eleven as a member of The Jackson 5. Jackson began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. In the early 1980s; he became a dominant figure in popular music as the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. Referred to as the King of Pop in subsequent years; five of his solo studio albums have become some of the worlds best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979); Thriller (1982); Bad (1987); Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995). "This Is It" is a song from Michael Jackson's sixth posthumous compilation album, This Is It, which accompanies the upcoming Sony Pictures motion picture release Michael Jackson's This Is It, and according to Epic the song is "available exclusively on the forthcoming album". Sony misleadingly referred to the song as a "new single" during its promotion, but it later emerged that the song would only be released to the radios, and not be available to buy or download as a single release.Michael.